Counties balk at joining state's foster-care computer link

Ohio has spent more than $90 million over the past decade trying to launch a computer system to keep track of tens of thousands of children placed in foster care each year.

Ohio has spent more than $90 million over the past decade trying to launch a computer system to keep track of tens of thousands of children placed in foster care each year.

But Cuyahoga County officials say the system does not work, and they refuse to sign on to it, as state officials have ordered them to do by June 23.

"We have grave concerns about the system," said Jim McCafferty, director of the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services. "We will be a partner and come on when it's functioning properly, and not before."

The statewide system is supposed to allow child-welfare officials to access real-time information from anywhere in the state. But counties that have joined the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System say it is plagued by crashes, glitches and access problems.

They can't get into the system to correct errors or find out which caseworkers are assigned to cases. Some counties have resorted to using spreadsheets to keep track of kids because of inaccurate or unavailable data.

The program's fiscal component has been added in only eight counties because of recurring problems that prevent counties from properly filing for reimbursement from the federal government. Licking and Columbiana counties had to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state after the system failed.

Officials at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services have a markedly different view of the information system. While acknowledging that the rollout has had problems, they say counties that have gone the extra mile are getting a system that largely works. Some counties haven't bought into the program and aren't trying to work through the problems, state officials say.

"We need their full cooperation, and they have to be ready to do it philosophically," said Fred Williams, the deputy director for the division overseeing the program.

State officials see no reason to wait to roll out the program.

"It's more important to get all of the counties in the system than it is to continue to search for the perfect system," Williams said.

But McCafferty is concerned that the computer system won't adequately protect the 40,000 children who pass through Cuyahoga County's child-welfare system -- about one-fourth of the state's foster-care caseload. On Wednesday, county commissioners agreed to write to Gov. Ted Strickland saying the county will not join the system by the June deadline.

A draft of the letter, obtained by The Plain Dealer, says the county believes "the system, at its current stage of development, has potential to place children at risk."

The county's position: The problems must be resolved, the counties now in the new system must be satisfied, and the system must perform as well as Cuyahoga's current system for 60 days. The county has spent $20 million over the past decade building its own system, the letter says, because it could not rely on the state to provide one.

Eric Fenner, director of Franklin County Job and Family Services, the largest metropolitan county to join the new tracking system, said McCafferty's stance makes sense. "His unwillingness to go live with the system until the system is fixed is wise," Fenner said. "I wish I was in his shoes."

Fenner said his staff has had "major, major problems" with the system since linking to it in July. Although some issues have been addressed, Fenner said the system's inability to generate management reports that "drill down" into caseloads and trends leaves him at a serious disadvantage. He called the information that can be compiled in the new system "basically useless" without the management reports.

State officials say some management reports are available.

Another major problem for Franklin County: The system forces state computer specialists to correct any mistakes made when entering data. As a result, something as simple as a transposed case number or misspelled name can mean a two-week delay.

The state says that problem is being solved.

Directors of child-welfare agencies in 10 other counties recently joined Cuyahoga's director in writing to the state saying they won't be part of the new system until it is successfully rolled out in Hamilton County and the problems are resolved.

amarshall@plaind.com

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